WEBVTT - Talking Tech 8th April 2025 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:11.880 Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from 0:00:11.879 --> 0:00:15.680 April the 8th, 2025. I'm Stephen Jolly. Great to have 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:19.240 you with us listening maybe through Vision Australia Radio, associated 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:23.120 stations of the Radio Reading Network or the Community Radio Network. 0:00:23.480 --> 0:00:26.120 There is also the podcast. To catch that, all you 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:28.880 need to do is search for the two words talking 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:31.120 tech and Dan. It can all come usually on a 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:34.919 Tuesday afternoon just after it's been produced. Another option is 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:37.760 to ask your Siri device or smart speaker to play. 0:00:37.959 --> 0:00:42.959 Vision Australia radio talking tech podcast. Vision Australia radio talking 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:48.400 tech podcast with me. Vision Australia's national access technology manager. 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:53.959 Damo McMorrow. Hey, Damo. G'day, Stephen. Tell us about a 0:00:53.959 --> 0:00:57.400 program of Vision Australia that's been going for some time. 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:00.800 The Vision Australia Alexa smart home program. 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:05.080 We're actually about to do another run of this program, 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:09.020 so we're commencing the program in May. The idea is 0:01:09.020 --> 0:01:14.179 that it's for people who perhaps haven't used smart speakers before. 0:01:14.420 --> 0:01:20.300 And the program includes a free Amazon Echo pop speaker. 0:01:21.140 --> 0:01:24.419 It's an eight week program. It's one hour a week, 0:01:24.420 --> 0:01:29.100 and it's sort of in small groups of usually four participants, 0:01:29.619 --> 0:01:32.060 with one of our facilitators, all of whom are blind 0:01:32.100 --> 0:01:35.580 or low vision themselves. And it's to to show you 0:01:35.580 --> 0:01:38.539 what you can do with a smart speaker. The beauty 0:01:38.539 --> 0:01:41.780 of these is that you don't have to have, you know, 0:01:41.819 --> 0:01:44.619 massive technology skills. You don't have to know your way 0:01:44.619 --> 0:01:48.460 around a keyboard. There's no gestures because everything you do, 0:01:48.500 --> 0:01:50.980 you do with your voice. So it's a really good 0:01:50.980 --> 0:01:53.860 way to sort of get information, you know, to show 0:01:53.860 --> 0:01:55.780 you how to do things like, you know, getting the 0:01:55.780 --> 0:01:58.900 news and weather through the speaker, but also things like 0:01:58.900 --> 0:02:03.860 reading your audible books, your, um, Kindle books, uh, and even, 0:02:03.900 --> 0:02:06.260 you know, how to set up routines so it plays 0:02:06.260 --> 0:02:09.440 your favorite news bulletin in the morning and you know, 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:11.760 we can turn on your aircon or your smart lights 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:14.960 or those sorts of things. It's funded through either the 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:22.040 Home Care package or Commonwealth Home Support Programme or funding. And, uh, 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:26.000 we will be starting the next program in May. Um, 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:28.480 either the 5th or the 12th of May at this stage. 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:32.040 So if people are interested in finding out more or 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:36.680 potentially registering, they can email voice assist all one word 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:41.080 at Vision Australia and a member of the team will 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:43.840 get in touch and, um, you know, provide more information 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:46.400 and go through a few, uh, sort of questions to 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:48.200 make sure it's going to be suitable for you. 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:55.360 Voice assist at Vision Australia. Remind us about the actual 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:58.000 device that you use, the Amazon device. 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:02.680 Yeah. So the Echo Pop is a it's a small speaker. Um, 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:05.919 it's sort of, uh, what would you describe it as? 0:03:05.920 --> 0:03:09.080 Half a half a sphere, I suppose, in shape. So 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:11.340 half a ball. It's the sort of thing you could 0:03:11.380 --> 0:03:13.620 just sort of sit on your kitchen counter top, your 0:03:13.620 --> 0:03:17.700 bedside table, that kind of thing. And there's no screen 0:03:17.700 --> 0:03:20.780 on them. So you, you know, you trigger the device 0:03:20.780 --> 0:03:24.620 by sort of saying the wake word, which is usually 0:03:24.820 --> 0:03:29.700 Alexa or something similar. Um, you can you can customize 0:03:29.700 --> 0:03:32.860 that and then just asking it a question. So play 0:03:32.900 --> 0:03:36.860 612 ABC Brisbane or is it going to rain today. 0:03:37.060 --> 0:03:39.780 And if so, when and what's the current score in 0:03:39.780 --> 0:03:43.260 the test between Australia and India? You know, all of 0:03:43.260 --> 0:03:46.140 those kinds of things you can do. You can, as 0:03:46.140 --> 0:03:49.500 I said, play radio stations. You can um, read if 0:03:49.540 --> 0:03:52.340 you've got we I remember we had a participant who 0:03:52.340 --> 0:03:56.180 had been using a Kindle device, and, uh, his vision 0:03:56.180 --> 0:03:57.660 had got to the point where he could no longer 0:03:57.660 --> 0:04:00.140 read it, and he'd set it aside about 18 months 0:04:00.140 --> 0:04:04.660 prior and thought, okay, my reading days are done. And, um, 0:04:05.220 --> 0:04:07.420 he learnt in the program that he could read his 0:04:07.420 --> 0:04:12.610 Kindle book on the, um, Amazon Echo pop. Speaker. And 0:04:12.610 --> 0:04:15.330 it basically continued exactly where he'd left off on the 0:04:15.330 --> 0:04:18.450 Kindle 18 months before. And so he was he was 0:04:18.450 --> 0:04:20.450 rapt that he could continue to read all the Kindle 0:04:20.490 --> 0:04:21.450 books that he'd got. 0:04:21.930 --> 0:04:25.410 Do you have to purchase the device before the program, 0:04:25.410 --> 0:04:27.410 or does Vision Australia arrange that? 0:04:27.730 --> 0:04:30.250 No. So we we provide the device as part of 0:04:30.250 --> 0:04:33.370 the program. So we there's no sort of cost to 0:04:33.410 --> 0:04:36.810 the device as such. Um, and we also have we 0:04:36.810 --> 0:04:39.290 work with an installation partner. So what happens is we 0:04:39.330 --> 0:04:43.169 send the speaker out and then our installation partner contacts you, 0:04:43.170 --> 0:04:45.290 and they send a technician out to actually get it 0:04:45.290 --> 0:04:48.650 connected to your Wi-Fi network for you. Uh, create an 0:04:48.650 --> 0:04:51.490 Amazon account if you need one. Uh, all of that 0:04:51.490 --> 0:04:53.370 kind of thing so that it's up and running and 0:04:53.370 --> 0:04:55.650 ready to use with the the program. 0:04:55.690 --> 0:04:59.730 Sounds pretty good. And the email address to enquire again. 0:05:00.410 --> 0:05:03.850 Voice assist all one word at Vision Australia or. 0:05:04.650 --> 0:05:09.010 Voice assist at Vision Australia. Org for the smart home 0:05:09.010 --> 0:05:13.510 program that starts in early May. Good luck with that one. 0:05:14.230 --> 0:05:17.390 Thank you. Now, our friend the BT speak, since we 0:05:17.390 --> 0:05:21.830 last spoke about it, it's had two monthly updates. Please explain. 0:05:22.070 --> 0:05:24.870 So the BT speak, just as a quick refresher, is 0:05:24.870 --> 0:05:29.190 a small they the Blasi tech call it a pocket computer. 0:05:29.950 --> 0:05:32.350 It is a small pocket sized device with a Perkins 0:05:32.350 --> 0:05:36.750 style Braille keyboard and speech output. They've done some fairly 0:05:36.750 --> 0:05:40.070 major reworkings in the last couple of updates, so some 0:05:40.070 --> 0:05:43.710 of the features that we now have are a number 0:05:43.710 --> 0:05:46.870 of enhancements to the editor, which is sort of the 0:05:46.870 --> 0:05:50.350 main note taker function of the device. The other one, 0:05:50.390 --> 0:05:55.310 the other thing that they've done is, um, an ability 0:05:55.310 --> 0:05:58.070 to search through menus because it is a menu driven system, 0:05:58.070 --> 0:06:00.670 and often things might be 2 or 3 levels deep 0:06:00.670 --> 0:06:03.590 in the menus. So you can now search for a 0:06:03.590 --> 0:06:09.190 particular function if you wish. And there's also they've introduced 0:06:09.230 --> 0:06:12.190 a way of being able to send emails. So the 0:06:12.190 --> 0:06:14.770 device has two modes, kind of a traditional, they call 0:06:14.770 --> 0:06:19.810 traditional mode, which is sort of replicates the old Braylon 0:06:19.810 --> 0:06:23.610 speak from back in the 90s, and then it has 0:06:23.610 --> 0:06:28.170 desktop mode where you can go into the Linux desktop. Now, 0:06:28.170 --> 0:06:33.810 previously emails were done, uh, using the Thunderbird email client 0:06:33.810 --> 0:06:37.010 in desktop mode. But what they've done is developed some 0:06:37.010 --> 0:06:39.730 workarounds so that you don't have to go into desktop mode. 0:06:39.730 --> 0:06:42.770 You can trigger a new email or reply to an 0:06:42.770 --> 0:06:45.930 email and things like that from within traditional mode, which 0:06:45.930 --> 0:06:49.850 is is nice, um, because it's a much more friendly 0:06:49.890 --> 0:06:52.090 sort of interface. And you don't have to learn the, 0:06:52.090 --> 0:06:55.770 the orca desktop screen reader. So, um, you know, as 0:06:55.770 --> 0:06:59.170 we've said before on the show, they do, um, add 0:06:59.210 --> 0:07:02.410 new features very regularly. And, uh, it is becoming quite 0:07:02.450 --> 0:07:03.850 a capable little device. 0:07:04.170 --> 0:07:09.170 Now, you've been playing with an alternate device recently, the 0:07:09.490 --> 0:07:13.450 orbit speak from Orbit Research. How does that stack up? 0:07:13.850 --> 0:07:16.910 That was an interesting thing. I, I saw one at 0:07:16.910 --> 0:07:21.990 CSUN and decided I wanted it. Um, and look, they 0:07:21.990 --> 0:07:27.590 both do different things extremely well. The orbit speak is, 0:07:27.950 --> 0:07:30.110 I guess, the, the best way to describe it is 0:07:30.110 --> 0:07:32.350 that the orbit speak really is kind of a pocket 0:07:32.390 --> 0:07:37.190 note taker, rather than a pocket sort of computing device. 0:07:37.190 --> 0:07:41.070 So it doesn't have, uh, you know, um, things like 0:07:41.070 --> 0:07:44.310 the Chrome or Firefox web browsers built into it and 0:07:44.310 --> 0:07:47.910 those sorts of things. Now, having said that, the things 0:07:47.910 --> 0:07:52.030 that it's designed to do, it does exceptionally well. The 0:07:52.030 --> 0:07:54.030 footprint is similar, but it's a little bit thinner than 0:07:54.030 --> 0:07:57.470 the BT speak. And that was one of the reasons 0:07:57.470 --> 0:08:00.390 I like it, because I can put it into a 0:08:00.390 --> 0:08:02.830 man bag or a bum bag and, you know, carry 0:08:02.870 --> 0:08:05.470 it around and it takes up less room. It just 0:08:05.510 --> 0:08:08.670 fits in there a little bit better. It's about the 0:08:08.670 --> 0:08:13.070 same footprint as my iPhone 15 Pro and probably a 0:08:13.070 --> 0:08:18.530 similar thickness, to be honest. Um, it, uh, it feels 0:08:18.530 --> 0:08:22.010 a little bit better in terms of finish than the 0:08:22.050 --> 0:08:25.370 BT speak. The BT speak the plastic case has some 0:08:25.410 --> 0:08:28.130 sort of rough edges and that kind of thing. And 0:08:28.130 --> 0:08:32.050 the keyboard is very is a lot less rattly or clicky. 0:08:32.689 --> 0:08:35.450 The keyboard is actually very similar to if you've seen 0:08:35.449 --> 0:08:38.410 the orbit Reader 20 or the orbit writer. It's using 0:08:38.449 --> 0:08:41.770 a similar eight key keyboard, but it does also have 0:08:41.809 --> 0:08:44.609 a little d pad where you can go up, down, left, 0:08:44.609 --> 0:08:48.489 and right. The advantage of that, um, in my particular 0:08:48.490 --> 0:08:51.089 use case, I, I went shopping last week. I was 0:08:51.209 --> 0:08:54.410 wanting to try some South African cooking and, uh, had 0:08:54.410 --> 0:08:56.610 quite a shopping list, and it meant that I could 0:08:56.609 --> 0:08:59.089 carry the unit in one hand and just operate the 0:08:59.089 --> 0:09:01.329 d pad with my thumb. I had each shopping list 0:09:01.329 --> 0:09:04.250 item on a new line. I find doing that on 0:09:04.250 --> 0:09:06.650 the BT speak where you're doing chorded commands. I find 0:09:06.650 --> 0:09:09.690 that kind of difficult one handed. Uh, obviously the reason 0:09:09.689 --> 0:09:11.730 I'm doing it one handed is because I was being sighted, 0:09:11.729 --> 0:09:16.250 guided around the, um, the South African grocery store. Um, 0:09:17.069 --> 0:09:20.550 the speech, I think, is a little better. Uh, well, 0:09:20.550 --> 0:09:24.189 not the speech. It does come standard with the vocalizer voices, 0:09:24.189 --> 0:09:27.830 but it has one speaker, but it's a slightly bigger speaker, 0:09:27.829 --> 0:09:31.109 so it seems to me to sound less tinny. Um, 0:09:31.510 --> 0:09:35.350 it does have things like a clock, a calendar, a 0:09:35.349 --> 0:09:39.950 contacts function, um, an alarm, you know, those sorts of things. 0:09:39.949 --> 0:09:44.189 It's got a web, radio and a very good and 0:09:44.189 --> 0:09:46.670 easy to use media player. So it does have some 0:09:46.670 --> 0:09:50.749 other functions apart from the note taker. But I think, 0:09:50.790 --> 0:09:53.189 you know, kind of depends what you want it for. Um, 0:09:53.189 --> 0:09:57.189 the other thing of course, because it runs Android and 0:09:57.790 --> 0:10:00.110 it behaves a little more like your phone in terms 0:10:00.109 --> 0:10:01.550 of when you put it to sleep, it goes to 0:10:01.589 --> 0:10:03.870 sleep and doesn't draw a lot of battery, whereas the 0:10:03.910 --> 0:10:08.150 BT speak, um, it does get warm and it probably 0:10:08.150 --> 0:10:10.550 will still be flat overnight. It just goes into a 0:10:10.550 --> 0:10:13.670 slightly lower power consumption kind of mode. Whereas the, um, 0:10:14.030 --> 0:10:16.469 orbit speak, when you put it to sleep, it, it, 0:10:16.510 --> 0:10:18.770 it goes to sleep like your phone so you can 0:10:19.089 --> 0:10:21.089 put it into sleep mode. Come back to it five 0:10:21.089 --> 0:10:23.009 days later and you'll be exactly where you were, and 0:10:23.010 --> 0:10:25.969 you won't have lost a lot of battery. So, you know, 0:10:26.010 --> 0:10:28.249 there are like all these things. There are pros and cons, 0:10:28.290 --> 0:10:31.970 I think, as a straight sort of portable note taker device, 0:10:32.010 --> 0:10:35.210 kind of pen and paper replacement, if you will. The 0:10:35.250 --> 0:10:38.010 orbit speak does a better job. If you want to 0:10:38.050 --> 0:10:41.250 tinker and play with Linux and still use it with, 0:10:41.650 --> 0:10:44.610 you know, desktop browsers and YouTube and things like that, 0:10:44.609 --> 0:10:47.290 then the BT speak is probably the way to go. 0:10:47.650 --> 0:10:49.770 Tell us about the price of the orbit speak and 0:10:49.770 --> 0:10:51.569 how it compares with BT speak. 0:10:52.170 --> 0:10:55.690 Uh, it is quite a bit cheaper. So the orbit 0:10:55.689 --> 0:11:00.370 speak sells for I think, 695 US. So by the 0:11:00.370 --> 0:11:02.809 time you convert that it probably works out at around 0:11:02.809 --> 0:11:12.289 about $1,000. Whereas the BT speak is I think 1199 US. 0:11:12.290 --> 0:11:15.050 So by the time you get it here, you're probably 0:11:15.050 --> 0:11:17.809 looking at something in the order of a little over $2,000. 0:11:17.809 --> 0:11:19.880 So there is a significant price difference. 0:11:20.079 --> 0:11:22.439 So we've been talking about the BT speak and the 0:11:22.439 --> 0:11:30.079 orbit speak from Orbit Research. Apple dropped some software updates 0:11:30.479 --> 0:11:31.320 last week. 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:38.920 They did iOS 18.4. And they also released a sort 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:41.600 of a minor update for devices that are not capable 0:11:41.599 --> 0:11:44.000 of running iOS 18, just to sort of plug some 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:47.719 security holes. I think there are a couple of good 0:11:48.359 --> 0:11:52.800 features for VoiceOver users in this latest update. They have 0:11:52.839 --> 0:11:57.079 a couple of additional verbosity controls now, so when you 0:11:57.079 --> 0:12:00.640 are scrolling through content, you can elect to have it 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:05.400 say or not say things like heading. Uh, those kinds 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:08.479 of attributes. And you can also tell it whether to 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:12.720 speak those before or after the name of the item. 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:17.400 The other one that I was quite pleased to see was, uh, 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:20.819 for those who use Braille displays, there is now a 0:12:20.819 --> 0:12:25.059 gesture which enables you to do a double tap and hold. 0:12:25.339 --> 0:12:27.860 So a good example of where you might do this 0:12:27.859 --> 0:12:33.499 is if you use either WhatsApp or the Apple iMessage 0:12:33.500 --> 0:12:36.179 program to send voice messages where you want to sort 0:12:36.179 --> 0:12:39.899 of tap and hold your finger on the record button. 0:12:39.900 --> 0:12:41.900 And then when you let it go, it stops recording 0:12:41.900 --> 0:12:44.380 and sends the message. So there's now a way to 0:12:44.420 --> 0:12:47.780 do that, a key sequence, a chorded command using your 0:12:47.780 --> 0:12:51.020 spacebar that you can sort of press once, which will 0:12:51.020 --> 0:12:53.380 initiate the double tap and hold. And then you press 0:12:53.380 --> 0:12:57.699 it again. And that that lets sort of releases the gesture. Um, 0:12:57.699 --> 0:13:01.500 there's also several bug fixes. Um, and as always, a 0:13:01.500 --> 0:13:04.459 couple of new bugs as well, I think. Um, I 0:13:04.500 --> 0:13:07.099 haven't come across them yet. They're obviously not major ones, 0:13:07.099 --> 0:13:11.179 I don't think, but definitely some nice improvements there in 0:13:11.219 --> 0:13:13.819 iOS 18.4 for VoiceOver users. 0:13:14.179 --> 0:13:18.900 And at the same time, upgrades for watchOS and for 0:13:19.059 --> 0:13:23.679 Mac OS and Probably tvOS, so I haven't seen much 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:24.600 about that yet. 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:26.959 No, I haven't looked into the TV one, but definitely 0:13:26.959 --> 0:13:30.679 the the watchOS and the Mac OS. Sequoia gets an 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:31.920 update as well. Yeah. 0:13:31.959 --> 0:13:35.079 But certainly for the iPhone and for the iPad, it's 0:13:35.079 --> 0:13:39.959 18.4 is the new version. That's right. Before we go, 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:42.480 a reminder that you can find details of what we've 0:13:42.479 --> 0:13:45.000 been talking about in this and previous editions of the 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:54.640 program by going to VA radio. VA. And to write 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:55.480 to the program. 0:13:55.679 --> 0:14:04.120 You can email me. At Vision Australia. 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:11.079 At Vision Australia. This has been talking tech with me 0:14:11.079 --> 0:14:15.360 has been Vision Australia's national access technology manager Damo McMorrow. 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:18.639 I'm Stephen Jolly. Stay safe. We'll talk more tech next week. 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:19.160 See you.